Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Gateway Monument To Fort Worth Stupidity Close To Completion

A few minutes ago I got an email informing me that Elsie Hotpepper had tagged me in Facebook. It always makes me nervous when this happens.

When I made my way to Facebook I found out the Hotpepper had tagged me so that I would see that which you see here, that being an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Usually I am banned from reading the Star-Telegram, but if the link is in Facebook, I am good to go.

I would put in the link to the Gateway monument for east Fort Worth closer to completion article, but you'd likely find yourself blocked from reading it unless you come up with the 99 cent reading fee.

This article is a gem, a real gem, a real embarrassing gem. But, before I get to that, as soon as I saw this Gateway monument thing I was hit with a deja vu feeling, as in, didn't we already deal with this? Years ago? Some tacky proposed monument which screamed hideous eyesore.

Fort Worth leaders are hoping a long-planned Interstate 30 gateway monument entrance sign that spells out Fort Worth becomes an iconic symbol much like Los Angeles’ Hollywood sign, but for now they just want it completed.

The project started in 2004 and is now scheduled to be installed in spring 2017.

The sign will the first of its kind for Fort Worth. It will have the city’s name spelled out in 8-foot-tall steel letters, mounted on repurposed concrete construction barriers that will cascade one-by-one for 500 feet perpendicular to the highway and will be lighted after sunset.

Councilwoman Ann Zadeh said the sign is unique and interesting and is “going to turn into something like the Hollywood sign. I would like to have my picture taken in front of a big ole sign that says Fort Worth.”

Oh my, this is just so embarrassing.

Fort Worth leaders are hoping this sign will become an iconic symbol like the Hollywood sign?

Fort Worth leaders? More like Fort Worth fools. For multiple reasons (America's Biggest Boondoggle is one) it is apparent Fort Worth is mislead by its leaders, but this really is a new low.

The Hollywood sign is iconic because it hovers over Hollywood. Hollywood is a name the entire world knows. Fort Worth is not known worldwide. Even if Fort Worth had a hill, like the Hollywood Hills, upon which it could stick a Fort Worth sign, it would still be a big yawn.

Fort Worth already has a semi-iconic sign, that being the Fort Worth Stockyards sign, it being the only thing in Fort Worth that someone from other parts of the planet might recognize as being in Fort Worth, greatly helped in that deduction by Fort Worth being named on the sign.

This proposed Fort Worth Hollywood sign is not on a hill, it is on the north side of Interstate 30, between Eastchase Parkway and Cooks Lane, an area I know well. If it actually gets installed in a couple years this will look ridiculous,

RIDICULOUS.

If putting up a sign like this was a good idea, don't you think other towns in America would already have done so? So that they too could have that iconic Hollywood sign thing happening?

Seattle has a lot of hills. How come no one in that town has suggested putting up a Hollywood type sign spelling out SEATTLE on one of the Seattle hills?

Or Vancouver, up north in Canada. Why isn't there a big VANCOUVER sign on Grouse Mountain, lit up at night, hovering over the coolest town in Canada?

San Francisco has a lot of hills, steeper than Seattle's. How come that town has not stuck a big SAN FRANCISCO sign on one of its hills?

I will tell you why.

Because it is a STUPID idea. And those towns have leaders who are not fools, unlike a certain town in Texas which seems to have a highly developed ability to embarrass itself.